Houston Texans Steel Blue Sunday is going to be hot (no, this isn’t about cheerleaders, sorry)

The Texans will be wearing their all Steel Blue jerseys and pants on Sunday playing the Colts. Teams pick their jersey combos out before the year begins, so I am guessing that they had no idea that the roof was going to be open all year no matter what the temperature when they chose that all dark jersey combo.

Well friends, it is likely to be toasty on Sunday, and I’m not just talking about the Texans secondary. Some people hate the fact that Reliant Stadium has a roof, but if it wasn’t for the roof, there is no way you could have had a deal with the rodeo to get it built.

The long range forecast is for about 84 and sunny. A little warm, but not bad…except, Reliant Stadium is no ordinary open air stadium. It is built very vertically, so all fans have good vantage points to the field. But it also means that very little breeze gets into the stadium. The Texans did some research that concluded:

Based on our own work with weather experts and other research conducted, we have learned that direct sunlight adds 15 degrees to the heat index and the high temperature. Therefore, if the high temperature is 83 degrees and it is sunny, the actual gameday temperature for the sun-exposed seating areas within Reliant Stadium would be 98 degrees.

Eek.

I was at the brutal September 18, 2005 game, the hottest game ever played at Reliant. Dom Capers cratered to media calls that he should open the roof more and use the elements to wear down opposing players, making the Steelers wear black. The on-field temperatures were reported to be 110 and rising. Uh, that didn’t work too well.

I’ve been told that the Texans still have a huge file of material of everything that went wrong that day. They ran out of water and ice in some parts of the stadium. Ambulances came to the stadium hauling off people who had problems with the heat. Fortunately, my seats that day were in the shade, but I heard tales of people in the sun getting the skin on the backs of their legs burnt from the seats.

Temperatures can be pretty hot even going into December. I had sunny endzone seats for the Big 12 Championship game a few years ago, and that was a pretty toasty experience though nothing like that infamous Steelers game.

Personally, I’m just glad that Reliant Stadium is usable after Hurricane Ike. I’m just telling you these tales to make sure that people wear their sunscreen, hats and otherwise prepare for the hot conditions.

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Little did you know that the biggest problem with the David Garrard easy touchdown run was what Will Demps had in his hand. That explains everything. [Alana G]